Ceramics are fun!

Who knew collecting ceramics could be so fun and exciting! We had a great line-up of speakers last night at the The Pink Line Project's first Artomatic 2008 panel discussion, Fired Up About Ceramics!: Collecting Dirt.

Next panel discussion will take place on Wednesday, May 21 at 7 pm in the 7th floor Education Room of Artomatic 2008, located at 1st and M Streets, NE. Topic: Information Overload: Finding Reliable and Useful Information About Art Collecting.

Thank you to our fabulous ceramic collecting experts:

• David and Clemmer Montague, passionate collectors who have been acquiring ceramics since their honeymoon in Spain and Portugal 36 years ago!
• Mike Holland, obsessed collector and scientist who has been collecting pottery from Seagrove, NC since college.
• Anne Surak, director of Project 4 Gallery, which represents several ceramists who crush the line between craft and fine art.
• Margaret Boozer, a ceramic artist whose work defies traditional definitions of ceramics and who is the founder of Red Dirt Studio.
• Novie Trump, a sculptor who works primarily in ceramics and is the founder of Flux Studios and also the director of the Lee Arts Center.
  

A few random thoughts from the discussion:

• Art collecting can be a means to becoming part of a greater community. The community may not necessarily be an art scene.
  
• Collecting art is a personal endeavor. Each collector has unique reasons and goals for collecting.
  
• Collecting art is a way to curate an art show in your home.
• Contemporary ceramic artists are pushing beyond ceramics as purely functional and/or decorative.

Investing in art

Couple interesting stories recently about fine art as an investment. Some highlights from an article in Market Watch about how Americans are still buying art at record prices despite the faltering global economy.

Art, as an investment, has held up well over time, beating or competing with stock market returns. Hard assets in a recession are go-to assets as they typically fight inflation. The art world may be gaining sales and ground because of that, as over the past two years both volume and prices have soared.

. . .

Sophisticated art buyers caution others about purchasing a work to make money. They say a piece of art should be bought for aesthetic purposes first, value second.

This article from U.S. News and World Report reminds us that art collecting isn't just for the wealthy! But you need to do your research if you're thinking about art as an investment. Advice from Walter Manninen, who started buying art in his 20s and says that the value of his collection has outperformed the stock market.

Art's popularity as an investment tool may, in part, have grown out of its success as a hedge against inflation. But any investment professional will tell you it's an ultrarisky asset. That includes Manninen, who has an M.B.A. in finance. He views his purchases, in part, with a banker's eye: Each brings great pleasure, and each adds value. A self-educated collector, he began by reading art magazines and journals, researching artists—and their place in the art world—and scoping out galleries and museums when he traveled. When he buys, he considers elements like a piece's physical condition and chooses works that were created in an artist's prominent medium and subject matter—a landscape painting from a landscape painter, for example. He also relies on the savvy of close advisers.

Manninen's experience offers a key lesson: Art buyers need to do their research if they want their works to appreciate over time.

Surf/art culture

The New York Times reports on "soul surfing" and the beauty of the longboard.

“When you head out to surf, you’re going to church out there,” he said. “It’s your arena, and it’s your place to become one with nature. It’s an incredible feeling and one hard to recreate anywhere else in life.”

Beautiful Losers celebrates the spirit behind one of the most influential cultural movements of a generation. In the early 1990’s a loose-knit group of likeminded outsiders found common ground at a little NYC storefront gallery. Rooted in the DIY (do-it-yourself) subcultures of skateboarding, surf, punk, hip hop & graffiti, they made art that reflected the lifestyles they led. Developing their craft with almost no influence from the “establishment” art world, this group, and the subcultures they sprang from, have now become a movement that has been transforming pop culture. Starring a selection of artists who are considered leaders within this culture, Beautiful Losers focuses on the telling of personal stories…speaking to themes of what happens when the outside becomes “in” as it explores the creative ethos connecting these artists and today’s youth.

Thomas Campbell is a beautiful loser.


These are his works from The Thread Is the Line show at the Ellipse Art Center in Arlington. Mines the top middle. Floater. Gorgeous.


Also, DC's very own Cynthia Connolly, director of the Ellipse, is a beautiful loser. See her work in a traveling exhibit called Beautiful Losers: Contemporary Art and Street Culture. You can buy limited edition prints created by the beautiful loser artists in this show for as little as $150. An excellent start to a great art collection.


Surfwise, the movie.

Like many American outsider-adventurers, Dorian “Doc” Paskowitz set out to realize a utopian dream. Abandoning a successful medical practice, he sought self-fulfillment by taking up the nomadic life of a surfer. But unlike other American searchers like Thoreau or Kerouac, Paskowitz took his wife and nine children along for the ride, all eleven of them living in a 24 foot camper. Together, they lived a life that would be unfathomable to most, but enviable to anyone who ever relinquished their dreams to a straight job. The Paskowitz Family proved that America may be running out of frontiers, but it hasn’t run out of frontiersman.

From Kala Alexander, in the New York Times:

“WAVES are just a little part of surfing,” the big-wave surfer Kala Alexander said last week as fat cumulus clouds drifted through the sky above the North Shore and an ocean both brilliantly turquoise and yawningly flat.

“You have to understand what it means to be a waterman,” he added. “You have to understand the way of life. You have to have respect.”

Robert Rauschenberg died last night

New York Times obituary here.

Arty stuff this week . . .

Pink Panels @ Artomatic 2008
Fired Up About Ceramics!: Collecting Dirt

Thursday, May 15
7 pm

1st and M Street, NE
7th Floor Education Room

Artomatic 2008
1st and M Street, NE

Wednesday and Thursday, 5 - 10 pm
Friday and Saturday, 12 pm - 2 am
Sunday, 12 - 10 pm

My artomates on the 4th floor at Artomatic are throwing a party, which includes a raffle of original art work:

Clay earth ball (sculpture) by –Joanna A. Cornell
•Original painting by –Randall Holloway
Digital print from the Cuban Pop series by Ric Garcia
•Framed photograph (Bougainvilleas)– by Sarah Berry
Pastel & ink drawing by –Christina Montejo
•Linoleum print –by Gaella Gottwald

Artomatic 2008
4th Floor
Friday, May 16
7 - 10 pm
@ 1200 1st Street, NE (at M Street, NE)

Duncan Phillips Lecture Series:
Kerry James Marshall, Artist
Thursday, May 15
6:30 pm
@ Phillips Collection

HEART of the TREE
Exotic Wood Sculpture & Sculpted Furniture
Margery E. Goldberg
April 28 - June 29
Reception:
Thursday, May 15
5:30 - 8:30 pm
@ The Sculpture Space
1111 Pennsylvania Avenue NW

International Art Affairs
May 15 - 18
@ Blagden Alley

MID CITY ARTISTS OPEN STUDIOS
May 17 & 18
More info here and handy map.

Christine Gray
Spring Thaw

Closing reception and artist talk:
Saturday, May 17
3:00 pm
@ Project 4 Gallery
903 U Street, NW

Transformer
Saturday, May 17
@ 1840 14th Street, NW

1:30 PM - Discussion of work between selected Here & Now artists and Kristen Hileman, Assistant Curator, Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden. Kristen will be leading an abbreviated tour of the exhibition in conversation with artists Jiny Ung (Washington, DC), Mandy Burrow (Arlington, VA), Graham Childs & Lily deSaussure (Washington,DC), and Kyan Bishop & Kate Hardy (Washington, DC).

3 PM - Guest lecture by current Whitney Biennial artist Matt Mullican (New York, NY), presented in partnership with Street Scenes: Projects for DC. Matt will be speaking about his work, sharing images of past and current projects.

Kevin Kepple
May 17 - June 21

Opening:
Saturday, May 17
5 - 7 pm
@ Addison-Ripley
1670 Wisconsin Avenue, NW

IVAN NAVARRO & COURTNEY SMITH
remake
May 17 – June 28

Opening reception:
Saturday, May 17
6:30 – 8:30 pm
@ G Fine Art
1515 14th Street, NW

James Marshall (Dalek)
Overweight
May 17 - June 21

Opening reception:
Saturday, May 17
6 - 8 pm
@ Irvine Contemporary
1412 14th Street, NW

Pattern Recognition
May 17 - June 28

Opening Reception:
Saturday, May 17th
6:30 - 8:30 pm
@ Adamson Gallery
1515 14th Street, NW

Karen Hubacher
With sculpture by Chris Tousimis
May 14 - June 22

Opening:
Saturday, May 17
6 - 8 pm
@ gallery plan b
1530 14th Street, NW

X
Saturday, May 17
6 - 10 pm
@ BeBar
1318 9th Street, NW
$8

gen aihara: Light Proof
May 20 - July 5

opening reception:
Tuesday, May 20
6 - 8:30 pm
@ Shigeko Bork mu project
1521 Wisconsin Avenue, NW

Billy Colbert documentary

Billy Colbert "Corporate Merger" from BBBloch on Vimeo.

Brandon Bloch made a superb documentary about Billy Colbert, one of my favorite DC-based artists. Thanks District Creatives for sharing this!

Monday morning blues

A little something to brighten up your rainy Monday morning.

Artistic idealism

Zoe Myers shared with me this artist statement by Jonathan Stein, an artist she shows in her gallery Heineman Myers:

In the ebb and flow of our existence, we are confronted by great hindrances, as well as overwhelming moments of joy, which shape and define our character. It is my assertion that within each individual there lives and breathes a personal narrative that holds merit and deserves to be fully recognized. As a visual storyteller and conceptual artist, my life’s passion revolves around uncovering not only my own inherent story but the elaborate tales of those around me. . . .

My purpose as an artist and individual is propelled by an insatiable need to make a difference in this world for the good and to create artwork that can reach out and connect with audiences. Whatever the artistic medium, whatever the tools I may utilize, and whatever the lengths I must creatively push myself to realize my vision, this hunger is what serves as my foundation and allows me to claim the serious title of artist and visionary.

We need this kind of idealism in our artists. We need it for ourselves.

Artomatic pick

My favorite emerging artist exhibiting at Artomatic 2008: Connor Glenn 11 years old

Artomatic opened last night and you have until June 15 to check out this remarkable assemblage of artists. There are 9 floors of art so I suggest you go soon and often. I started a top 10 list but I only made it through three and a half floors so will try to finish it another time. But who really cares what I think is the best art at Artomatic. What's important is that Artomatic is an impressive open forum for artistic expression. We need more of that.

It was originally conceived as a way to break down the geographical and social segmentation of the Washington arts scene, to bring art directly to the public and to build cohesion among artists. The city's ongoing development in recent years has diffused the arts community by breaking up pockets of artist studios. In addition, local artists are sometimes overshadowed by national blockbuster shows and federal landmarks. Artomatic provides a forum for all of our area's artists to convene, perform and exhibit, strengthening the visibility, cohesion, and marketplace of Washington's arts community.

Artomatic starts tonight!

thepinklineproject.com
@

Artomatic 2008
May 9 - June 15

Opening reception:
Tonight!
7:30 - 9 pm
But you can hang out there til 2 AM.
@ 1200 1st Street, NE (1st and M Street, NE)

Perfection

Ruppersberg is a genius.

Sewn art is awesome

If you have not yet seen The Thread As the Line: Contemporary Sewn Art at the Ellipse Art Center, then get over there and take a look as soon as you can. This show is chock full of extremely awesome art, including work by Matt Nelson, who created the work you see above. Also, Steve Frost below:

Here & Now

Transformer is thrilled to present:

Here & Now

May 10 - 24
May 31 - June 14

Focusing on issues of place, time, fragility, security and fantasy, this two-site exhibition features 17 artists creating large scale, site-specific installations and environments within Transformer's project space, and in three floors of the former Church of the Rapture building space up the street from Transformer at 1840 14th Street, NW.

Artists Participating in Here & Now include:

May 10 - 24

At Transformer (1404 P Street, NW): Jennifer Burkley Vasher (Placitas, NM)

At 1840 14th Street, NW (entrance on T Street, NW):

Kyan Bishop & Kate Hardy (Washington, DC)
Sonya Blesofsky (Brooklyn, NY)
Mandy Burrow (Arlington, VA)
Graham Childs & Lily deSaussure (Washington,DC)
Derek Cote (Richmond, VA)
Mia Feuer (Richmond, VA)
Lisa Kellner (Hanover, VA)
Jong Sun (Jay) Lee (Baltimore, MD)
Chris Moukarbel (New York, NY)
Amy Rubin (British Columbia, Canada)
Paul Shoemaker (Richmond, VA)
Jiny Ung (Washington, DC)

May 31 - June 14

At Transformer (1404 P Street, NW):
Mariah Johnson (Los Angeles, CA) and Valerie Molnar (Richmond, VA)

* * *

Please join Transformer's staff and board, and the Here & Now artists in the following special programming:

Saturday, May 10, 2008

1:30 PM - Conversation between Ryan Hill, Manager of Interpretive Programs and Curatorial Research Associate, Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden, and artist Jennifer Burkley Vasher (Transformer)

4 PM - Performance by artist Paul Shoemaker (1840 14th Street, NW)

Saturday, May 17, 2008 (@ 1840 14th Street, NW)

1:30 PM - Discussion of work between selected Here & Now artists and Kristen Hileman, Assistant Curator, Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden

3 PM - Guest lecture by current Whitney Biennial artist Matt Mullican (New York, NY), presented in partnership with Street Scenes: Projects for DC

Saturday, May 31, 2008 (@ Transformer)

3:30 PM - Conversation between Cynthia Connolly, Director of the Ellipse Art Center and Curator of The Thread as the Line and artists Mariah Johnson and Valerie Molnar

EXHIBITION HOURS for both Here & Now exhibition venues:
Wednesday - Saturday, 1-7pm & by appointment.

Weekend photo roundup

I had to be in two places at once - the CuDC Gala and the BYT Relaunch party - last Saturday due to a scheduling snafu that was not entirely my fault ... this time. Damien Ossi took some great photographs at both events.


The crew at Brightest Young Things killed it too! This one is from Bao Nguyen. See hundreds more images here.

Finally, thanks again to Scion for sponsoring the art at the BYT Relaunch party.

Cool video of Wreckfest

VIMBY - Wreckfest @ Tiffany's

VIMBY finally posted the video Sean O'Grady made of Wreckfest. It rocks!

Spillage reduced

Painting this fly onto the porcelain of urinals at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport reduced "spillage" by 80%. Who says art can't be functional too? Thank you Art Vent for highlighting this cute Duchampian reference.

Pink panels

The Pink Line Project presents:
a series of panel discussions to educate the emerging and experienced art collector.

@ Artomatic 2008
1200 1st Street, NE (at M Street, NE)
Metro stop: Red line, New York Avenue (M Street exit).
Panels will be held in the 7th Floor Education Room.

* * *

Fired Up About Ceramics!: Collecting Dirt
Thursday, May 15
7 pm

Novie Trump
Margaret Boozer
Mike Holland
Anne Surak
Moderator: Philippa P.B. Hughes

* * *

Information Overload:
Finding Reliable and Useful Information about Art Collecting
Wednesday, May 21
7 pm

Sharon Burton
JW Mahoney
Lenny Campello
Martin Irvine
Moderator: Dr. Fred Ognibene

* * *

Art Collecting 101: Inspiration and Passion
Saturday, May 31
2 pm

Minna Nathanson
Veronica Jackson
Mel + Juanita Hardy
Brian Aitken + Andrea Evers
Moderator: Philippa P.B. Hughes

Light refreshments will be provided at all panels.

Thank you DECOY for creating the artwork!

Arty stuff this week . . .

All Senior Thesis Exhibition
Corcoran College of Art

Opening:
Wednesday, May 7
7 - 9 pm
@ 500 17th Street, NW

Jason Zimmerman
"Feel better, longer"

Jen Stark
"Much-much"

May 9 - June 14

Opening reception:
Friday, May 9
7 - 9 pm
@ Civilian Art Projects
406 7th Street, NW

Lighting to Unite
Gerry Hofstetter:
Projection on exteriors of the Washington National Cathedral
Sunset to midnight
May 9, 10, 11

Janis Goodman
Cross Currents
May 9 - June 6

Opening:
Friday, May 9
6:30 - 9 pm
@ Reyes + Davis
923 F Street, NW

Spring Community Show
Friday, May 9
6 - 8 pm
@ ArtSpace
614 S Street, NW

Flash
Friday, May 9
7 pm - 3 am
@ Jackie's Back Room
8081 Georgia Avenue
Silver Spring

Artomatic 2008
May 9 - June 15

Check the website for information about countless events that will take place.

Opening reception:
Friday, May 9
7:30 - 9 pm
@ 1st and M Street, NE
Metro: Red Line to New York Ave., M Street exit

Here & Now
May 10 – 24
Wednesdays - Saturdays
1 - 7 pm

Saturday, May 10
1:30 pm
Conversation between Ryan Hill, Manager of Interpretive Programs and Curatorial Research Associate, Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden, and artist Jennifer Burkley Vasher
@ Transformer

4 pm
Performance by artist Paul Shoemaker
@ 1840 14th Street, NW

Artists showing:

@ Transformer
1404 P Street, NW
Jennifer Burkley Vasher (Placitas, NM)

@ 1840 14th Street, NW (entrance on T Street, NW):
Kyan Bishop & Kate Hardy (Washington, DC)
Sonya Blesofsky (Brooklyn, NY)
Mandy Burrow (Arlington, VA)
Graham Childs & Lily deSaussure (Washington,DC)
Derek Cote (Richmond, VA)
Mia Feuer (Richmond, VA)
Lisa Kellner (Hanover, VA)
Jong Sun (Jay) Lee (Baltimore, MD)
Chris Moukarbel (New York, NY)
Amy Rubin (British Columbia, Canada)
Paul Shoemaker (Richmond, VA)
Jiny Ung (Washington, DC)

Corcoran Friends
Art Anonymous
Saturday, May 10
More info here.

Gretchen Feldman
stitches in time, etc.
May 8 - June 1

Opening:
Saturday, May 10
5:30 to 8:30 pm
@ Nevin Kelly
1517 U Street, NW

Scott Brooks
Under the Skin
May 10 - June 7

Opening reception:
Saturday, May 10
5 - 8 pm
@ Longview Gallery
1032 9th Street, NW

Marlene Godoy
Considerations
May 7 - June 7

Opening:
Saturday, May 10
6:30 - 9 pm
@ International Visions
2629 Connecticut Avenue, NW

Bridget Sue Lambert
Preconceived Notions
May 10 - June 17

Saturday, May 10
5 - 7 pm
@ Pyramid Atlantic
8230 Georgia Avenue
Silver Spring

Art Anonymous at the Corcoran

Art Anonymous

The Corcoran Gallery of Art and FRIENDS of the Corcoran are proud to host their first Art Anonymous fundraiser, benefiting the Corcoran College of Art + Design’s BFA Scholarship Fund. Leading contemporary artists will offer for sale original, postcard-sized works alongside the creations of students, faculty, and staff of the Corcoran College of Art + Design and the Corcoran Gallery of Art. All works are only $100—the catch: all artwork is signed on the back, so the identity of the artist will remain a mystery until after the purchase.

Art Anonymous is an exciting and affordable way to add to your collection. Anyone could walk away with a fantastic bargain—will you?

Reception, drinks, and dancing included.

SATURDAY, MAY 10, 2008
MEMBERS $50, NON-MEMBERS $65
ALL WORKS $100
RAFFLE FOR THE FIRST 10 PICKS $50

6 P.M. PREVIEW AND RAFFLE
7 P.M. BIDDING OPENS

DRINKS AND DANCING UNTIL 11 P.M..

CORCORAN GALLERY OF ART
500 SEVENTEENTH STREET NW
WASHINGTON, DC 20006

Kindly RSVP for this event by May 1, 2008. For more information and to register, please click here or call (202) 639-1753.

Participating artists include: Irene Abdou, John M. Adams, Dana Aldis, Geoffrey Aldridge, Shahdeh Ammadi, Alida Anderson, Tim Anderson, Sondra N. Arkin, John Aquilino, Geoff Ault, Patricia Autenrieth, Jennifer Axner, Malena Barnhart, Jessica Grace Bechtel, Diane Blackwell, Lisa Blas, Raya Bodnarchuk, Tanya Bos, Richard Boswell, Mark Cameron Boyd, Joseph Bradley, James Brantley, Courtney Bratun, Lindsay Bratun, Julia Braun, Jean Brinton- Jaecks, Andrew Brown, Jason Bulluck, Renee Butler, Craig Cahoon, Colby Caldwell, F. Lennox Campello, Julie Carrasco, Stevens Jay Carter, Julie Casey, Gloria Cesal, Sarah Chamberlain, Amy Chan , Mei Mei Chang, Natalie Cheung, Nannette A. Clark, Lauren Clay, Michael Clements, Genevieve Cocco, Cindy Ann Coldiron, Tim Conlon, Bryan Conner, Sarah Coombs, Ellen Cornett, Patricia Correa, Adger W. Cowans, Robert Creamer, Christopher Cunetto, Emily Cunetto, Christopher Cunningham, Jasmine Daraie, John Deamond, Adam de Boer, Marianela de la Hoz, Rosetta DeBerardinis, Francks F. Deceus, Kate Demong, Jennifer DePalma, Rosanna Dixon, Nancy D. Donnelly, Joel D’Orazio, Katie Drenga, Nekisha Durrett, Steven Eson, Lori Esposito, Steven E. Frost, Lee Gainer, Lacey Gentry, Casey Goldman, Janis Goodman, Pat Goslee, Liz Gordon & Anna (Na Kyung) Ahn, Melissa Green, Tom Green, Lauri Hafvenstein, Mohamed A. Hamo, Rion Harmon, Carol Harrison, Jonathan Hartshorn, Stephen Hay, Sean Hennessey, Dayan Herrara, Randall C. Holloway, Jackie Hoysted, Michal Hunter, Melissa Ichiuji, Megan Irving, Ema Ishii, Harry L. Jaecks, Chris Jamison, Susan Jamison, Ian Jehle, Ryan Carr Johnson, Sue Johnson, David Jolkovski, Adam Jones, Coty Jones, Benjamin Gray Jones, Courtney Jordan, Mila Kagan, Margaret Kepner, Amy Kincaid, Ed Kirkpatrick, Marti Deppa Kirkpatrick , Nick Kirkpatrick, Katherine Kisa, William Knipscher, Steve Lakatos, Nick Lamia, Joshua Levine, Gina Marie Lewis, Katie Lewis , Amy Lin, Heidi Lippman, Carol Lukitsch, Raymond MacDonald, Akemi Maegawa , Dana Maier, Susan Makara, Isaac Maiselman, Isabel Manalo, Joey P. Manlapaz, Katherine Mann, Nathan Manuel, Anne Marchand, James Marshall (Dalek), Madeline Marshall, Myra Maslowsky, Leah Matthews, Cory May, Lisa McCarty, John McDaniel, Joseph McSpadden, Robert Mellor, Ashleigh Nicole Meusel, Trace Miller, Adrienne Mills, Elizabeth Lundberg Morisette, Camille Mosley-Pasley, Marci Nadler, Otto Neals, Emilia Olsen, Kerry O’Neil, Jonathan Ottke, David Page, Paulette Palacios, Chul Beom Park, Annie Peters, Brian Petro, Pamela Phillips, Ryan Pierce, Michael B. Platt, Nick Popovici ,Antonio Puri, Carole Rabel Nicoteri, Camden M. Richards, Marcel Richter, Charlotte Riley-Webb, Emily Rockwell, Andrew Roda, Lisa Rosenstein, Michael Knud Ross, Ron Rumford, Anna Samaha, Nancy Scheinman, Kahn & Selesnick, Mike Shaffer, Joanna Silver, Kristy Simmons, John Simpkins-Camp, Kerry Skarbakka, Paul So, Judy Southerland, Ashley A.. Sullivan, Lynn Sures, Zach Storm, Erik Swanson, Jordan Swartz, Tim Tate, Steve Taylor, James Stephen Terrell, Katurah L. Thomas, Kevin Tierney, Erwin Timmers, Susan Powell Tolbert, Patricia Truitt, Alexia Tryfon, Nicholas Tryfon, Katie Tuss, Linn Meyers and Bert Ulrich, Jessica van Brakle, Izel Vargas , Oliver Vernon, Ivi Volanska, Christopher Walker, Cheryl Warrick, Ellyn Weiss, Moon Young Wohn, Sharon Wolpoff, Antoinette Wysocki, Thomas Xenakis, Lindsey Nicole Yancich, Michelle Yo, Trevor Young, and Toopy Zerotree.

Works will be available for viewing beginning May 1 in advance of the event in the Corcoran Gallery of Art’s Gallery 31. To access Gallery 31, please use the New York Avenue entrance.

Marc Ross designed chair at Vastu

So cool! Marc Ross, a recent Corcoran graduate designed this chair for his senior thesis project and it will be sold in limited edition at Vastu.

Designed by Marc Ross, a recent graduate of DC's Corcoran College of Art and Design, the Lore Swivel Chair (pronounced "Lori") incorporates mid-century modern design with simple fluid lines. The acrylic is cut, heated, molded and buffed by hand. The height of the aluminum base is adjustable.

During the month of May, Vastu will hold a silent auction for the clear prototype, #1 of 2,000, with all proceeds benefiting future Corcoran College of Art and Design thesis development.

Changing the world

An Artinfo interview with Jeff Koons.

Can art change the world?

I think that people — and people’s gestures — change the world. And art is a vehicle of people’s gestures. So yes, I think that art changes the world.

I could not agree more.

Cultural fun!

The CuDC gala was a blast last night! Raised a bunch of money to support a mission that I support wholeheartedly:

The Cultural Development Corporation creates opportunities for artists and arts organizations that stimulate economic development and improve the quality of life. We envision the arts driving economic and community development as an integral part of DC’s vibrant metropolitan area.

Successful economic development entails many components, including arts development and the rise of a creative class and CuDC is an integral part to making this happen in DC.

This time, I actually had my camera with me but took only this one picture, which makes Todd and Kevin look like such a cute couple. Sorry guys.

Pictures below are from Kevin:




My chariot awaited.

Dinner with Patti Smith

Dinner with Patti Smith hosted by Washington Life. Sooooo cool.

DINNER WITH PATTI SMITH

Teatro Goldoni

PHOTOS BY TONY POWELL

THE EVENT: This intimate dinner brought some of the city’s top art collectors, patrons and professionals together with the iconic musician and artist, Patti Smith. The four-course gourmet aff air followed Smith’s one-woman performance “An Evening of Spoken Word and Song with Patti Smith” at the Archives of American Art. THE SCENE:Forty lucky guests spent the evening chatting about art and the letters Patti Smith read from the book With Love: Artists’ Letters and Illustrated Notes. THE GUESTS: Archives of American Art director John W. Smith, the Hirshhorn’s Kerry Brougher, Tim and Shigeko Bork, artist Mark Smith, Susan Eisenhower and collectors Cindy and Evan Jones.

Brian looks exasperated but in fact, this is his usual demeanor.


Why am I dressed like this? Because I had been channeling Audrey Hepburn at Wreckfest @ Tiffany's earlier in the evening.

Art In America

JW Mahoney wrote a Report From Washington DC, subtitled To a Different Drummer, for the May 2008 issue of Art In America (page 95). The piece presents a fairly thorough overview of the Washington art scene and considers whether and how we've evolved since the Color School drew some notice back in the 60s. I can't find a link to it on-line to share with you but here is a section that I found interesting:

So is the contemporary art of the Washington area a distinctly specialized, “alternative”—or even “outsider”—art? Few Washingtonians think so, except, perhaps, its artists. The artists, however, may have a point. Undaunted in their ongoing investigations into whatever seems visually meaningful to them, Washington artists radiate a culturally wired but unapologetically visionary attitude that features an almost patronizing relation to the larger world of contemporary art. D.C. artists still go to New York (or London, Venice or Miami) to process international trends, and whatever they don’t reject they take back home for personal use. Information is power; accordingly, Washington artists tend to make art that is information-rich. This is a conservative radical art—the kind Washington might be presumed to produce—and it is a hothouse for autonomous, unregulated, undefined imaginative activity.

The DC art scene needs to figure out its identity without reference to another city's identity. It really bugs me when people say, and I hear this too often, "Well it's not New York." Well duh it's not New York. It can not and never will be New York. And why would it want to be NY anyway? We have a vibrant and thriving group of artists, galleries, and collectors that is unique and creative in its own right. Problem is: our art scene seems a little disconnected from each other. Here's a comment from an artist friend in response to my recent blog post:

As an artist I have the same complaint about the 'art world', I find it mystifying and unwelcoming too! I have no idea how to find exhibition opportunities or even approach galleries. I can be a complete extrovert except when it comes to the self-promotion of my art. What little exposure I have is directly from my website and networking. So I literally just have stacks and stacks (seriously, this is what happens when you make prints) of art and no idea what to do with them, except to buy myself a nice big set of flat files to store them in! Anyway I thought it was just interesting that people that want to buy art feel the same way.

More importantly and more detrimentally, our art scene feels disconnected from non art people, especially those who would like to participate but have told me they feel it is inaccessible and unwelcoming. That may be true of any art scene, but why? This makes no sense to me and I won't stand for it. :)

Mahoney also mentioned me in his article. Thanks Jim! Wait until you see what I've got in store for you later this year. [wink]

The other notable website is that of local collector and blogger, Phillipa Hughes (pinkline.org), who seeks to address three important shortcomings of the D.C. art scene. First, Washington’s educated young professionals remain generally undeveloped as a resource for the local art market. Second, the city’s older, more established artists are often hard to find on gallery walls. And finally, much of D.C.’s recent art history exists only orally or on the pages of older, often defunct art magazines. What pinkline.org offers is Hughes’s own, accurately sourced events calendar of Washington’s contemporary art life, including projects she sponsors herself—a night of graffiti art at the AAC, for example, or her occasional “salons” at a local bar.

Corrections to the article:

It's always lucky whenever the DC arts community gets any major art magazine coverage, and, with only a few exceptions, noted below, I stand by the edit of the text of this article. My image selection for the piece, however, was largely ignored by the editors. There are images I consider redundant by some Color School artists – the art world knows all these people by now – and, without any disrespect implied to the artists themselves, any images by artists unmentioned in the text were selected by my editors. The piece looks good, but it's not as I designed it to look.

Some textual corrections: Philippa Hughes' name is spelled that way. The gallery representing Tom Downing's estate is the Addison-Ripley Gallery, even as Leigh Conner has often featured Tom's work. And Michael O'Sullivan is noted as "the only DC art critic to be taken seriously by local artists," when the original text was, specifically, "the only Washington Post art critic to be," etc. And the original piece was longer, and included more artists, from Jae Ko to Borf, to Yoko Ono.

What's important is that our arts community continue to wake up to two significant conditions: first, that we're radically, originally, rich aesthetically, however slim or quixotic the validation feels from our greater social community and its media - and its museums. Second, that we have to validate (or keep validating) ourselves and each other first, before and whether or not an art world of 2008 or 2009 ever does.

J.W. Mahoney

Art auction frenzy

Faith pointed out an article from Slate.com about how media relishes predicting doom and gloom about the art market going bust, particularly around the art auction season when conspicuous consumption makes a gaudy appearance. Perhaps it's their way of chastising people who buy trophy art for outrageous sums so they can brag to their friends about how much they paid for it.

I have been trying to figure out why more people don't become art collectors even though they are interested in art, and I think this article touches on the answer. We hear too much about hedge fund managers and movie moguls buying art for millions if not hundreds of thousands of dollars, which sways us to believe that we can't get any decent art unless we spend a lot of money. Not true! There is a LOT of great affordable original art out there if you're willing to expend a little effort. And when I say affordable art, I mean great art in the complete range of prices. Something to suit every budget. To prove it to you, I'm going to start highlighting great affordable art. Affordable is a tough criteria, though, because it means something to different to everyone, so I'll just say that for now, it means under $500. Off the top of my head, I suggest you check out Heineman Myers gallery in Bethesda for a show called Stimulating Consumption. Most of the work is priced between $300 and $900.

The most important thing is to buy work that means something to you and not because you want to impress people. So it doesn't really matter how much you spend anyway. The bonus: if you amass a collection of original art to which you have given some genuine thought and you love it, then it will be impressive regardless of how much you spent on it

Art fanatic

I gave a little talk about art collecting on Friday night at Pyramid Atlantic and thought this picture taken by Taylor Wyant pretty well summed up my presentation. It conveys my fanaticism and passion for art collecting! Collecting art can change your life and I know this because it changed my life. Stop laughing. I am serious. Through art collecting, I have learned so much about myself. I have met many fascinating people who have inspired me to become a more creative person in my own right and to think of more creative ways to solve problems. Art collecting has also provided me with an avenue for creative self-expression and it has given me the opportunity to help others as well. Art communicates to us from the past and teaches us about the past, and it is also a way to engage with other cultures. Sounds like some kind of elixir doesn't it?!

Some other points from my talk: What makes a good collector? Passion, commitment to learn, and a willingness to make mistakes. I cribbed that from a lecture I'd heard earlier in the week by the director of the Chicago Art Institute at SAAM.

How do you know if what you want to buy is any good? Hone your eye by looking at a lot of art. Go to art fairs, galleries, museums. Talk to other collectors; sometimes they are your best source of information. Learn to articulate what you like and don’t like.

I kinda veered off my outline when people started asking me questions, which was almost right away. Basically, I think many more people would collect original art if the art world were less mystifying and more welcoming. Hope I can help change that.


Look how riveted everyone appears!